Tag Archives: STL

Lebanon’s STL Indictment

6 years later and the moment many were waiting for is here. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has issued its indictment against four Lebanese men, suspected of being involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, back in February 14th, 2005.

And as has been expected for more than a year, the suspects are Hezbollah-related individuals. The names don’t matter. After all, most of us don’t even know who these men are or what they do with Hezbollah exactly. Based on the biographies TV Channels are running, some of them seem to be very important people in the ranks of the party.

Their names are as follows: Mustafa Badreddine, Salim al-Ayyash, Hasan Aineysseh and Asad Sabra.

Mustafa Badreddine is the brother-in-law of Hezbollah’s assassinated commander Imad Mughniyeh and he eventually replaced Mughniyeh as Hezbollah’s chief operations officer. He is also said to be the mastermind and supervisor behind the Hariri assassination.

Everyone needs to know that an indictment is very different from a verdict and I hope no one in the Lebanese political scene acts rashly in the following few days, be it positively or negatively. These said suspects are awaiting trial where they will be allowed to present their case and seek to be acquitted and, at the end of the day, may well turn out innocent.
By the looks of it, the Lebanese street is still quite relaxed. The two opposite neighborhoods that have become characteristic of both Lebanese sects/Political sides involved in this conflict: Beirut’s Southern Suburb (Dahye) and Tariq Jdide are still going at their day normally, as if nothing happened. The interpretation of the indictment is of different nature in each: the first thinking it’s political and the second believing it’s a just verdict.
At the end of the day, we are all part of the same country and our main goal is to get to a conclusion for this dark period of Lebanese history.  Hopefully the path towards this goal won’t be filled with unnecessary bumps by rash politcians that make life harder for every Lebanese.

Indictment

For months now, we, Lebanese, have been hearing about a possible indictment being issued in an international tribunal, made especially to bring justice to the murderers of previous Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

As the date drew nearer, the political scene in Lebanon grew tenser. Some parties (we all know who they are) started to cry foul – saying the indictment is false without it being released yet. And at the moment of writing this, there was nothing mentioned about the possible contents of this indictment except pure speculation.

Wouldn’t it be wiser if these parties just waited for the indictment to be issued to take an official stance and do what they’re doing now, which is basically crumbling down the foundations of Lebanon by collapsing the government and threatening strife?

Wouldn’t it just be too ironic if the indictment came out and it actually did not accuse these specific parties of the murder of Rafic Hariri? This is a possibility. I doubt the Special Tribunal wouldn’t take the constant rambling about these “false witnesses”, which was the apparent cause of what’s happening today, seriously. This Tribunal is ran by professionals who, unlike many Lebanese judges, actually know what they’re doing. If they have reason to believe these witnesses were indeed lying, it’s very probable that they annulled their testimonies. But being the professionals that they are, they didn’t divulge it to the public.

All I know is, ruining the country for a “what-if” scenario is not healthy. And it’s always the case. This specific party has been basically shoving its ideas down our throats, without even any room for negotiations. Why? because they are well-armed. We cannot become a fully functional society, built on equality, unless the people of this society do not fear each other. When I need to be careful with what I post online about specific countries and about this specific group, you know you’re not in a healthy place. It might be that they are affected by the country that fuels them through military and ideological means… but this is Lebanon, the free-est country in the region, where I shouldn’t be afraid to say what I really feel.

Let me finish by saying this… if someone’s really innocent, they don’t need to fear an indictment.